Using Everything Except the "Moo"

A couple of years ago when we butchered a steer, we asked the people at the slaughterhouse to save us all the fat.  We believe in using as much of the animal as possible.  We use everything except the "moo."  The steer was fat and we actually had too much fat!  Last year when we brought our Jersey bull calf to the slaughterhouse, we asked them to save the fat again.  Chuck, the Jersey bull, was a leaner animal.  A lot of his fat went into the ground beef, but we still were able to get some and freeze it in big bags.

This week Tricia thawed it out and began processing it.  She placed the fat in big pots on the stove and began heating it up, letting it cook for most of the day.  No, it doesn't look too nice.

Much of the fat liquefies into oil.  The remainder reminds me of cracklins.  This job is probably best done outside, but the mosquitoes are terrible right now and it is terribly hot.

We try to spoon out most of the remaining fat that wasn't converted to oil and then we pour the oil through a muslin cloth stretched over a colander to filter the rendered fat.

What we are left with is clean cooking oil rendered from beef fat.

While this is still hot, we pour into a Pyrex cooking dish and set aside on the counter and allow to cool.

The remaining 'nastiness' that is made up of fat, gristle, meat, cartilage, bone, etc. is gradually fed to Big Boy.  He seems to like it, despite the fact that it doesn't look appetizing.

As the beef tallow cools, it loses its transparent quality and becomes as white as a bar of Ivory Soap.  The work is almost done.  We now cut up the beef tallow into squares.

Using spatulas, we scoop the tallow out and place into zip loc bags where they will be frozen in the deep freeze.

As we need cooking oil, we'll pull a square or two out of the freezer and heat in a cast iron skillet.  With heat added, the beef tallow becomes cooking oil again and can be used the same as any other cooking oil that you might use.

Using beef tallow reminds me of what many people grew up watching their moms and grandmothers do.  I can remember bacon grease being poured in a coffee cup or can to be used as cooking oil later on.  It would turn snow white and then a spoonful could be scooped out and put in a skillet to add wonderful flavor to whatever dish happened to be on the menu.  Fat doesn't have to be a waste product that is thrown away.